Malaccamax

Malaccamax is the term used for largest ships capable of passing through the Strait of Malacca. These ships are designed to negotiate the 25 m (82 ft) draught restriction of the Strait of Malacca. As per the current permissible limits, a Malaccamax vessel can have a maximum length of 400 m (1,312ft), beam of 59 m (193.5 ft), and draught of 14.5 m (47.5 ft). Initially, Malaccamax ships were planned to be 470 m (1542 ft) long and 60 m (197 ft) wide with a draught of 20 m (65.6 ft), but the proposed design was later modified to meet the stringent rules and regulations with regard to operational efficiency, as well as making these ships capable of negotiating several ports across the continents. Similar to Malaccamax, the term Panamax andSuezmax are used for the largest ships capable of passing through the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal respectively.

Strait of Mallaca

Malaccamax vessels are typically bulkers and supertankers which are referred to as very large crude carriers (VLCC). Nowadays, container ships in this category are also being designed to meet the growing demands for large container ships. Maersk Triple E class container ships with a capacity of 18,000 TEU conform to the Malaccamax size limit. Built by Daewoo Shipbuilding of Korea, these ships will be 400 m (1312 ft) long and 59 m (193.5 ft) wide with deadweight of 165,000 tonnes. With a proposed draft of 14.5 m (47.5 ft), and planned increase of the breadth and depth of the Suez Canal in coming years, these container ships will be able to pass through the Suez Canal in the future. But they will still be too deep to use ports in Americas or pass through the Panama Canal. The increasing demand for Malaccamax container ships could be leading to the expansion of some of the existing terminals, and creation of new terminals to accommodate such large ships.